Bally’s Atlantic City Hotel & Casino’s Grand Ballroom: Roiman Villa made a successful US debut on Friday in the SHOBOX opener, dropping Janelson Bocachica and pummeling him in eight rounds to capture a unanimous decision by scores of 78-73, 79-72 and 79-72 in the eight-round welterweight bout.
As well as delivering the loudest and most flashy shots, Villa also hit Bocachica’s mouthpiece, breaking off five times, resulting in referee Harvey Dock deducting a point the third time he went airborne.
Villa (25-1, 24 KOs), a lanky and explosive boxer from Venezuela, dropped Bocachica 30 seconds into the second round with a slicing right hand as Bocachica was pinned against the ropes in the first knockdown of his career. The Detroit fighter rose quickly but found himself on the defensive again when a heavily tattooed Villa unleashed punches, causing Bocachica (17-1-1, 11 KOs) to lose his mouthpiece three times in the second, which ultimately caused Dock to deduct a point. in a nightmarish sequence for the 23-year-old.
“Although I would have liked to have gotten the knockout, I am very happy with the performance,” said Villa. “We had a short training camp of only five weeks and two of those weeks we had issues where we weren’t able to prepare the way we wanted to. I was 50 percent tonight. I am very happy to get the victory.
“This was my debut in the United States and I am happy for the opportunity to show my skills,” continued Villa. “We will definitely stay in the United States and get more fights. Whoever my promoter Sampson wants me to fight, I’ll follow his plan. We want to have great fights in the welterweight division and start making my case as a true contender in the division.”
Bocachica admitted he may have been a bit overconfident ahead of Friday’s fight against the virtually unknown Villa.
“I was overconfident thinking I would knock him out,” Bocachica said. “He hits hard, but I’ve been hit harder. He should have done more. All of my mouthpieces are a bit too short. We have to go to the drawing board and we will come back.”
